Avoid receiving spam photo comments!

For some reason, somecat (or somecats?) has been writing comments on Harvard's photo album that are either blank or gibberish. They aren't abusive, just...gibberish (as in a meaningless series of letters and numbers). I've deleted the ones with nonsensical text, but the blank ones, apparently, cannot be deleted. I haven't bothered to look up the cats who sent these messages (I suspect they were from the same cat, or somecat plus their friend(s)), but it's hard to imagine that any adult member of Catster would send these messages unless they were having trouble processing reality--perhaps because of a wee catnip overload? And why only Harvard has received these puzzling messages, I have no idea. Maybe somecat has a grudge against Harvard University? A Yalie, perhaps?
In any event, protect yourself from photo comment spam by clicking on the page that allows you to opt for reviewing any comments on your photo/diary before they go public. That way, you can nip the spam problem in the bud. I've already done so myself, so if you suddenly feel the urge to write a comment that goes "Qllsr09lllft," be forewarned that I will delete it.
Somecats just have too much time on their paws...
:?

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Comments

Thanks Harvard it's not just you it seems there's a spammer on the loose and you may have noticed the diaries aren't working. That's because Catster is trying to get to the bottom of it and stop these horrible spammers from posting and invading the place.

Who would want to spam Catster, anyway? Must be kids. I had three kinds of spam comments: blanks; nonsensical strings of letters/numbers; and clueless, poorly-spelled comments like "This is jst wht I wuz lookin for, thx." They were from cats with names and Catster numbers, and not from "Guest," either. Ooo, more Fake Cats!

you'll notice they are not from cats or you'd be able to click on the cat and get to their page. They are just from NAMES. It's happened to many kitties. Hopefully it's fixed now but they should be reported to Catster.

Happened to me tew!
I sent it to Caster HQ. They wrote back to say it was fixed!
Sure hopes so!
Purred by: vettjb October 17th 2011
2TuZmIuofcdxbtuonkâ†‘ â†‘ Who or wut is this? Canâ€™t even read it!
Not a registered member or Cat! :n:

Those aren't kids, and certainly not cats or even dogs. It is the work of professional spammers trying to find a way to post links to their nefarious pages in order to sell something (most likely pornography), spread malicious software, or attempt to scam innocent web users out of their hard-earned dollars.
I don't know whether it's possible for an anonymous (non-member) visitor to include a link in comments, but if you come across a link in a comment from a non-member, DON'T CLICK ON IT!!! ::o::o::o

We have received a ton of these kind of comments too.
It started with some comments that did make sense but had lots of spelling errors in, clearly all from the same member :? although we couldnt actually click on the cats name to view their pages.
It's now moved on to the gibberish posts :?:n:

@Bruce--Exactly. Nonsensical poorly spelled posts, and now just gibberish. Even the names are now gibberish. Harvard got another such comment on a photo Saturday. Why they are targeting Harvard and not my other cats, I have no idea. I also wonder why this is happening on Catster--Catster is well-known to cat lovers, but what about the Internet community at large? I'd hate to think that it could be some crazed Catster member who's doing this. There are no click on links, and I don't know enough about hacking to see how posting gibberish could somehow be useful in this regard.

I received some of these gibberish posts too on my photos and because they were nonsensical and didn't describe anything I didn't know which photos they were on. Only the last few days did I find them and delete them. I don't get it. :?